"The further a society drifts from the truth, the more it will hate those who speak it." Orwell

"Men are so simple of mind and so dominated by immediate needs that the deceitful man can easily find those ready to be deceived."
Machiavelli

"The demagogue is one who preaches doctrines he knows to be untrue to men he knows to be idiots.." H.L. Mencken

Thursday, May 1, 2014

Your Leaders At Work

Hate is a strong word, but I'm really starting to that wordthese guys:

Republican strategists say the more dramatic moments in the hearings, where Burwell will face a litany of tough questions from Republican lawmakers, could yield rich material for television ads and social media campaigns.

"Ultimately, it may be Republicans' only opportunity, certainly before the end of the summer and maybe before the election, to have a senior administration official available to answer these questions," said Lanhee Chen, who advised Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney on domestic policy during the 2012 campaign.

One Republican aim is to trip up the 48-year-old White House budget director and force embarrassing slip under the glare of the televised proceedings.
"One gaffe and they lose the news cycle," a Republican Party strategist said.

They're talking about upcoming confirmation hearings for our president's nominee to run HHS. Not interested, are they, in the job at hand. Or in providing useful alternatives or improvements to the Affordable Care Act. Only lying, they are, and attempting to score political points, caring not at all about the health of the nation. Which, of course, describes in full the entirely of Republican legislative efforts at the national level. (Local level: something else altogether, where they're deadly serious about destroying democracy by voter suppression, public education destruction, health care denial, and theocratization.)
Yeah, sure, just business as usual. What's new? Nothing. And it never will be.

News cycle. Of such concerns is great work born.

Yes, yes, I can hear you, when I use the word "hate." You're asking, "What took you so long?"

For The Sake of My Sanity

Some will know me from my other blog, "Surgeonsblog." Of late I've given over to frothing at the mouth as the world descends into stupidity, and our politics and our citizens seem, in numbers enough to be meaningful, unable to see it. So for now I'm leaving surgery writing behind, if for no other reason than to defuse and diffuse my unrelenting sense of doom, and with no expectation of making a difference. These are things that, to me, are obvious. Except that, apparently, they aren't.

RWS™

RWS™: For those who drop by here in the middle, and wonder what it means: it's my shorthand for Right Wing Screamers, which includes such a long list it's tiresome to type it. (I distinguish these blowhards from thoughtful conservatives, of whom I sort of take it on faith that there must still be some.) You know who I mean: Palin, Beck, O'Reilly, Limbaugh, Hannity, Coulter, Breitbart (RIP), Malkin, Savage, Levin, Ingraham, Doocey (more of a drooler than a screamer), Hewitt, Goldberg, Gingrich, Kristol, Scarborough (+/-), Bachmann, Inhofe, Bond, Broun, Boehner, Kelley, Santorum, Cain. To name but a few. Behold them in their unrepentant disregard for reality: the RWS™